Autodesk Awarded 3-D Printing CRADA

Under an 18-month Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories will use state-of-the-art software for generative design from San Rafael-based Autodesk Inc. as it studies how new material microstructures, arranged in complex configurations and printed with additive manufacturing techniques, will produce objects with physical properties that were never before possible. LLNL researchers will bring to bear several key technologies, such as additive manufacturing, material modeling and architected design (arranging materials at the micro and nanoscale through computational design). LLNL and Autodesk have selected next-generation protective helmets as a test case for their technology collaboration, studying how to improve design performance.

Through the application of goal-oriented design software tools, LLNL and Autodesk expect to generate and analyze the performance of very large sets—thousands to tens of thousands—of different structural configurations of material microarchitectures.